A BRIEF HISTORY OF PASTA (II)

It is estimated that Italians
eat over sixty pounds of pasta per person. This love of pasta in Italy far
outstrips the large durum wheat production of the country; therefore Italy
must import most of the wheat it uses for pasta.

Today pasta is everywhere and
can be found in dried and fresh (pasta fresca) varieties depending on what the
recipes call for. The main problem with pasta today is the use of mass
production to fill a huge worldwide demand. And while pasta is made
everywhere the product from Italy keeps to time-tested production methods that
create a superior pasta.

By Italian law dried pasta must
be made with 100% durum semolina flour and water. However there are two
factors in dried pasta from Italy that make it typically better than most other
products: extrusion and drying methods.

These molds, while expensive
and prone to wear are favored for making the best dried pasta. However
most producers worldwide use steel molds that produce pasta that is too smooth
to hold onto sauce. Fortunately more pasta makers outside of Italy are
starting to use the older style copper molds.

The mass produced pastas are
dried at very high temperatures for a shorter time than quality
pasta. Traditional pasta is allowed to dry slower, up to 50 hours at a
much lower temperature. It is after the pasta is fully dried that it is
packaged. The result is a product with a much better mouth-feel, quicker
cooking time, and superior sauce holding.

All pasta starts out as fresh
pasta but some is made to be eaten "soft". Fresh pasta can be
made with slightly different ingredients than the dried variety. Many
northern regions of Italy use all-purpose flour and eggs while southern Italy
usually uses semolina and water but it depends upon the recipe.

Fresh pasta is not better than
dried pasta, it is just different and is used in different situations.Some
types of pasta are served only fresh, others only dried and some others can
have fresh and dried versions.

Here fresh pasta is often
served with cream sauces or a simple sauce of butter and sage while light
tomato sauces are reserved for the summer months. Following the simple but
important rule of using fresh local ingredients, the Piedmontese serve their fresh
pasta with a butter sauce covered with slices of local black truffles.

This is due to the fact that
some types may have different names in different languages, or even in the same
language: in Italy, for example, names vary according to the region or area. In
addition, pasta manufacturers and cooks may come up with new shapes or give new
names to old shapes…the possibilities thus become endless!

Italian pasta names often end
with the masculine plural suffixes –ini, -elli, -illi, -etti or the feminine
plurals -ine, -elle, to convey the sense of "little"; or with -oni, -one,
meaning "large". Other suffixes exist too: -otti
("largish") and –acci ("rough", "badly made"). In
Italian, all pasta type names are plural. Pasta ending in 'ini' may be a
smaller version of a particular shape, and pasta ending in 'oni' the larger one. For example,
spaghettini (smallest), spaghetti (regular), spaghettoni (largest).

Pasta shapes are specifically
designed to hold the sauce in the best way possible. Many regions have created
their own pasta shapes: for example, bigoli (thick, noodle-like spaghetti) are
from Veneto; strozzapreti (meaning, ‘priest strangler’) are from
Emilia-Romagna; trofie (perfect with pesto) are from Liguria, and orecchiette (or,
‘little ears’) are from Puglia.

According the recipe book “I
love pasta”, gnocchi is the forefather of all pasta; it evolved into other
shapes by manipulating the dough by hand or using simple tools, mixing wheat
and water to produce local variations.

The easiest way to categorize
pasta is into long, short and soup shapes. Long pasta can be further divided
into cylindrical, either solid or hollow, and rectangular or rounded. The first
group includes spaghetti and vermicelli. The second group includes linguine,
bavette, and trenette.

Short pasta names and shapes
were influenced by their times; for example, at the end of the 19th
century, ditalini rigati were also known as garibaldini as a tribute to
Garibaldi; mafalde and mafaldine were named in honor of Princess Mafalda of
Savoy (or perhaps the daughter of a pasta maker!).